66 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



which grow upon the mountains ; even the grass at 

 your side is as the parent spire which He who 

 ordereth all commands to bring forth seed after 

 its kind. All around you is as it was in the begin- 

 ning. I know not how long I should thus have 

 stood musing, but for a motion of John's, which 

 broke the chain of thought and brought my mind 

 back to the practical realization that we were 

 wet, hungry, and tired. In the middle of the lake 

 was a large flat rock, rising some two feet above the 

 surface of the water. Stepping noiselessly into our 

 boat, we paddled to the rock, and, wringing our drip- 

 ping garments, stretched ourselves at full length 

 upon it to dry. 0, the pleasant sensation of warmth 

 which that hard couch, to which the sun had given 

 a genial heat, communicated to us ! Never was bed 

 of eider-down so welcome to royal limbs as was 

 that granite ledge to ours. What luxury to lie and 

 watch the vapor roll up from your wet garments 

 while the warm rock gave out its heat to your 

 chilled body ! In an hour we were dry, at least 

 comparatively so, and we held a council. Our 

 commissariat was getting rather low. Our stores, 

 spread upon the rock, amounted to the following : 

 two pounds of pork, six pounds of flour, four meas- 

 ures of coffee, one half-pound of tea. John esti- 

 mated that this would last us three days, if I 

 had ordinary success with the rod. "But what 

 are we to do to-night? " I exclaimed ; " we have 



